


Memories of That Voice

by StarlightShimmer



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Alternate Universe, Cecil's Voice, Gen, M/M, Public Speaking, University Students
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-05-30
Updated: 2014-05-30
Packaged: 2018-01-27 15:38:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,031
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1715819
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightShimmer/pseuds/StarlightShimmer
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Carlos was encouraged to take a public speaking class he expected to hate it. And he did, but he did not hate journalism student Cecil or his amazing voice. Many years later when Carlos receives a grant to work in a small town called Night Vale he is shocked to hear that voice again.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Memories of That Voice

Carlos was kicking himself for signing up for this public speaking class. He was a scientist and he was out of his element. Looking around the lecture hall he did not recognize one person, but clearly a number of them recognized each other. He would have been much happier taking a class with a lab component, but his mentor had advised him that if he intended on pursuing a career in science it would be of the utmost importance to be able to communicate with non-scientists as well in order to share his eventual findings. Carlos had grumbled, but had signed up for the class his professor had suggested. 

The class was a small one, but it was still more people than he had ever spoken in front of and he was not looking forward to doing so. 

“Alright everyone,” a voice spoke up, “Take your seats and we’ll get started.”

Carlos looked to the front of the room and the petite woman who was clearly the professor. People settled down and Carlos was able to ascertain that the room was not full though he was pleased with his choice of seat near the back of the room. Even if he did not like talking in front of people he could not imagine that this class would be a lot of work and he was hoping he could do some of his reading and work for his science classes without being noticed.

“So, this is public speaking,” the woman said “and I’m Dr. Emily Prowse your instructor. Syllabi are going around and while they are we’re going to go around the room ad introduce ourselves. Name, major, and why you’re taking this class. You start.”

Carlos tuned out as the others introduced themselves. This was always the part of a class he hated, but it was all but inevitable. He had had some professors who did not insist on it, but they were few and far between. 

“My name is Cecil and I’m a Journalism major.” The voice was unlike any he had ever heard. Deep and smooth, a voice that he could actually want to listen to. He would probably be happy to listen to Cecil read his grocery list. He missed the rest of what the guy had said and could not even point out which of his classmates this Cecil was, but he wanted to hear him speak again. 

After the entire class had introduced themselves they went over the syllabus. Carlos shuddered when he read that each student would be giving a 5 to 8 minute presentation every week. Each week also had an assigned topic - although two weeks were ‘Choose Your Own Topic’. He supposed it could be worse, the presentations could always be longer, but they were being thrown right into them with the boring, though simple first week topic of what they did with their summers. It was cheesy and cliché, but at least it probably would not take too long for him to write considering he spent his summer working on campus in one of the labs. 

*

“Cecil, you’re up. Carlos, you’re on deck.”

Carlos’ head shot up to take a look at the guy with the amazing voice. He was, honestly, rather plain. Not short, not tall. Not thin or fat. He was, all in all, rather average. Carlos had never thought of himself as being particularly vain, but he had somehow excepted Cecil to be more… just more.

“Good afternoon,” the voice said when Cecil opened his mouth. Carlos felt a shiver run down his spine at the sound. Somehow he had expected it not to be as compelling as he remembered, but it was. He wanted to drop everything and only concentrate on that voice. “Today I will be speaking to you about my summer. I spent my summer interning at the radio station in my hometown under my favorite radio host, Leonard Burton.” The guy kept speaking, but Carlos was not picking up on the individual words, instead allowing the soothing voice to wash over him. 

The lull of that voice even calmed the panic in the back of his mind at the fact that he had to go right after. Sure, he had written his speech, practiced it multiple times in front of his bathroom mirror, but he knew he was not really ready. 

Much too soon he was clapping politely for his classmate, his sweaty palms smacking together sounding far too loud to his ears. 

“Carlos, you’re up, Amanda, you’re on deck.”

Carlos walked to the front of the room, self-conscious with all the eyes upon him. The papers with his prepared speech were clutched tightly in his sweaty hands. 

He had thought walking to the front of the class was bad, but standing at the front with all those eyes on him was so much worse. He looked around, taking a deep breath the same way Dr. Prowse had advised them. She sat at the very front of the classroom, her pen poised to take notes, an encouraging smile on her face. 

“Uh, so I’m Carlos and this summer I worked on campus in one of the labs,” he began, staring intently at his notes. He had designed the speech so that it would be more about the scientific details of their research than anything personal in the hopes that it would keep him calm. He knew he was speaking too fast and stumbling over his words, but even though he tried to slow down it was no use. 

Regardless his classmates gave him a smattering of applause those most of them looked confused, likely by the scientific details. His eyes stopped when he reached Cecil however and the guy was grinning at him and clapping wildly. If Carlos had been able to blush more than he already was he certainly would be with the way Cecil was looking at him. 

He hurried back to his seat and tried to turn his attention back to his work. While it was easy to ignore the voices of the other presenters, it was a lot more difficult to remove the image of an ecstatic Cecil from his mind.


End file.
